James Potter Doesn't Lose
by isleepthroughlife911
Summary: James Potter is not one for second place, so when he finds out that Lily Evans has taken the top spot in three of his classes, he gets a little competitive. 7th year, slightly AU
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Even though I was I was Ms. Rowling, I fear that will never be true.

James Potter was not used to losing. When asked to describe himself, the trait he was most proud of was 'being a winner' (and sometimes bravery). Girls fawned over him simply because he was the _best _at everything he set his mind to. He was the top of his class, and, at the moment, the top of the school. James Potter was Quidditch captain and the best chaser (and all around player if you asked him) that Hogwarts had had in the last twenty years at least. So when he found out that Lily Evans was not only beating him in Charms, but Transfiguration and Potions as well, you could say a bit of a competitive streak was brought out in him.

_Game on._

* * *

_Chapter One: And so it begins_

It was a sunny Wednesday when he found out.

"What do you mean Evans is doing better than me in Charms?" James had always thought she was simply _rubbish _at the subject, as she had often complained loudly for the whole common room to hear.

Remus shifted his gaze up from his book. "I mean that Lily is beating you at Charms."

"That wasn't funny Moony. How is she doing it? She has alwaysstruggled at Charms, and it's my best subject! Doesn't that make it sound a bit odd to you?"

"You're just upset someone's better than you at something." Sirius added from his spot on the ground.

"And that that someone is Miss Lily Evans." Remus chuckled. In response to this, James took it upon himself to shove Moony's book in his face.

James pushed his glasses up him nose, "It's fine that someone is doing better. But my point is that no one has ever beaten me, and its unlikely that Evans could go from being terrible at Charms, to doing better than the best in the class."

"I was never terrible at Charms."

Prongs jumped ten feet in the air, only to land on Sirius who had yet to vacate his spot on the floor.

"EVANS! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE TH-" James was cut off when the injured Sirius shoved him violently off.

"She's been standing there for at least two minutes." Remus was more that a bit annoyed that his book had been crinkled from the personal time it had with his face.

"That I have, and since your faith in my Charms ability seems to be in jeopardy, may I point out that I have had perfect grades in that class since second year," She starts digging around in her bag, "Remus, here is the book I borrowed from you yesterday," she handed it to him, "you were right it really was interesting. Do you think you could recommend another to me sometime?"

Remus nodded. "Of course! If you found that interesting, you might like _The History of Modern Spells. _I think I have a copy somewh-"

"Its fine! I can just check it out later from the library, I have to run!"

James was bright red, his fists were crossed in front of him. Sirius figured he looked like an angry goat, in an weird sort of way. "You two seemed _awfully chummy._ Something I should know about? Hmmmm." James had been slowly leaning in and by the end of this accusation, he was face to face with the poor werewolf.

"Lily and I are friends. Always have been. Besides, we're partners in Arithmany, last year we were prefects together, and we both happen to like reading. Nothing more."

James was now resembling the big bad wolf. "And you never happened to mention any of this? I've been head boy for a total of two months and have yet to get her to say that much to me, then you happen to be here and all of a sudden she's talking up a storm!"

"I guess its not a good time to mention she's also beating you at potions and transfiguration then."

James was livid.

* * *

The next day Lily was being chased down the hall by the Head Boy and she wished it was unusual.

"Evans, I need to talk to you!" Potter was ears were bright red and he seemed to be chocking on his lungs. Lily thought that she should just get this over with, and slowed to a stop.

"What is it you want, Potter." _If he asks me out I swear I will punch him in the nose, and he was doing __so__ well this year._

"I wanted to ask you to compete against me."

"Come again?"

"You pick the subject. I pick the test. Lets find out who's really the best once and for all." He seems pleased with himself.

"And why would I want to do that, and what could you possibly mean 'once and for all'. I didn't realize that this was an ongoing competition?" Lily was now glaring dagger in his direction. _He's finally lost it._

"You're just scared you're going to lose." James had arranged his features to appear mocking and innocent, completing the look by rocking back and forth on this heels.

"You know what? Why not."

That hadn't taken much convincing.

* * *

_A.N. Well, here goes my first fanfiction! Please favorite, follow, and review if you liked it! I think that this will only be about 5,ooo words longish. 3 chapters at the most! This was just kind of a preview chapter because I wanted to see if i liked the story. If you notice anything thats wrong PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Much thanks!_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Even if polyjuice potion did exist, I still wouldn't be J.K. Rowling.

* * *

_Chapter Two: Potions and Trouble_

Lily had decided.

It had taken her two days, much pestering from Potter, and a whole lot of hot chocolate before she approached the Marauders that Saturday at breakfast. Looking back, she couldn't help but wonder about why she had taken so long to choose, as there was only one obvious answer.

"Potions." It was her best class, and James was absolute rubbish at it.

James pretended to look surprised. "Really? I thought you would choose DADA. There goes that plan."

Lily glared at him.

"Thats not the only reason I came here. I was wondering if you wanted to raise the stakes a bit?"

"And what, pray tell,are you willing to wager?" The smirk on his face was worrying.

There was an endless list of things she could request, but none of them seemed good enough. She could have him do rounds all by himself, but then no one would have points taken away, she could have him do her homework, but there was no promise he would do it well, so that left one option. And it was certainly genius.

"When you lose, you have to drink whatever potion we make."

James let out a low whistle. "_Impressive_, Evans. I admire you confidence. Lets make that the same for you."

Remus thought it was about time to intervene. James wasn't thinking, but when did he ever. "Prongs, I think you should reconsider."

"And why is that Moony" James looked smug but his voice was laced with mild annoyance. Someone tugged on his sleeve.

Sirius whispered, "_Remember the potion we agreed on?"_

"This doesn't change things."

"It should." After giving it some thought, James blanched.

"Oh."

By this point, Lily was feeling rather left out of the conversation. She thought that maybe she should just leave, as this didn't sound like something for her ears, but as she turned to leave, a gruff voice spoke up.

"Don't you want to know what the potion is, Evans? You will be making it later today, after all."

Lily turner around, "Enlighten me."

Sirius chuckled. "Amortentia."

"What." Lily had paled considerably. Suddenly the earlier question caught up with her. "_Later today?_"

"There's no time like the present. Besides, when else were you going to do it?" This came from Peter, who everyone had forgotten was there.

"Ummm…todays fine I guess." This was becoming very stressful.

"Excellent, we shall compete after breakfast," James picked up his half-eaten toast. "Feel free to hang around until we're done."

Lily weighed her options. "Why not." And sat down on the bench.

* * *

They were in the potions room.

Lily was visibly shaking.

James appeared unaffected.

She thought this was off to a terrible start.

So did he.

"Okay. So you each have your separate cauldrons, all the ingredients are there. We've got your Ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint, moonstone-both powdered and not, and a shit ton of belladonna in case you screw up." Sirius was smug. He was always smug. Even when he was nervous he was smug. And when he did something, like collecting all the ingredients needed for a N.E.W.T. Level potion in a day and a half, he was double smug.

"Great." James' voice had cracked. _And now everyone knows. _

"You okay there, Prongs?"

"Of course." He was going to puke.

"Well, if everyone's good, I'm going to leave. Let me know when your done and the three of us will come and judge." And with a flare of his robes, Sirius departed.

"That's hardly fair." Lily muttered, how was she supposed to win if James had his friends to back him up?

"Trust me. They want nothing more than for me to lose this." Potters skin was looking a bit peaky as he started the fire under his cauldron, he added the Ashwinder egg after carefully cracking open the shell.

Lily snorted. She cracked her egg above a bowl, whisked the innards, the added it to the potion. "Of course. It's not like you have a blood oath to always have each other's backs."

James was puzzled. "Three things," He held up as many fingers. "1. There is no blood oath, 2. This is their perfect idea of a prank, not to mention they don't have to put any work into it, and 3. What did you just do to your egg?" He was now glaring at her accusingly.

"It's called a whisk." She held it up. "I wasn't cheating. It's a muggle invention, you use it to stir things."

"Oh. But why did you stir it?"

"Because."

"Oh, right. Of course." Great. Now he was in a huff.

"Fine, because that's what you do when you make pancakes. And its what I've always done when I've always done when making this potion. Happy?" During this conversation she had added five and a half rose thorns, and crushed the other one and a half into a paste. She then added that as well.

"Pancakes?" He threw all seven thorns in, "What are you doing now?"_ Where did she learn how to do this?_

"Yes pancake," Lily glanced up from her potion. It had been half an hour already and she was only a quarter of the way done. "I thought this was supposed to be a competition. I can't win if I tell you how to make the potion, you know."

She smiled. An actual eye-crinkling smile.

James had never seen that before.

Not when it was directed towards him.

He thought he might faint.

When she looked back down again, James felt air start to fill his lungs again. "But where did you learn how to do that?"

The smile disappeared, she practically hissed at him, "People always seem to forget that I was just as good as Snape. We were equals." She paused, "We used to be best friends." She shook her head. "Ummm…we shared a lot of tricks and tried a lot of different techniques over the years. So I know what works." Now she was laughing. "I'm not going to blow you up or anything. Remember that one time Peter covered the entire class in purple slime?"

James was still caught up in the sudden mood changes that the pretty red head had gone through in the last five minutes that he almost failed to realize that this was the longest she had spoken to him in almost five years. Not counting the times she had yelled at him for asking her out, or turning her hair neon…or that one time he had transformed the entire third year class into geese.

Lily gave him a questioning look.

"You okay there?"

James ruffled his hair. "Yeah. Sorry. That was pretty hilarious." His voice was devoid of emotion, as if he was not really there.

Lily wondered where he had gone.

"Be careful."

James glanced up.

Lily nodded her head at his cauldron. "If you don't add some peppermint leaves in thirteen seconds, you'll have to work twice as hard to catch up to me."

James gave her a glowing smile.

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

* * *

A.N. Okay! There goes chapter two! I think it went rather well? Please Review, Favorite, Follow, and what ever else it is you can do (Its appreciate _very_ much).

Both chapters are unedited so far, and if you notice anything wrong, don't hesitate to point it out.


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